Answered another question on Quora today. Fun! I love helping solo and small business owners make it happen. 😍~Question: I am planning on starting a small business in the new year - an after school maker space for kids aged 7 - 11. Does anyone have any advice they would like to share?

​Answer:

First, congratulations on your decision to start a small business. I’m inspired by your courage and initiative. Never give up, keep working, and you will get there.

You have a good start on your target market, the parents of kids aged 7 - 11 in West London. I’m not familiar with the geography of England, but I have a sense that you may want to narrow down West London to a more precise geographical area.

The next step is to learn everything you can about the parents whose kids you want to enroll in your maker space. Perhaps you are your ideal target client, so you can ask yourself what would make you say “YES!” to the offer you’re planning to make.

As a parent, what questions or concerns would you have? What benefit to your child would be most compelling to you? What would you be willing to pay for the program? What about safety and transportation? What assurances would you need as a parent?

Write up a one-sheet description of your offering and share it with at least 20, preferably 50 or 100, parents you know. Ask them if they’d enroll their kids in something like this. You can do this in person or online. Maybe a Facebook group would be appropriate. Treat this process as you’re asking the parents for their opinion and feedback on what you’re doing.

The learning that will occur in these conversations will be invaluable to you. Your savvy and confidence will grow measurably as you do this. You may even gain initial commitments from interested parents!

In these conversations, after they read your one-sheet, say something like, “I’m thinking about running the program in this way and charging this much.”

Watch for their reaction to how it works and the price. Pay close attention to the language they use and make note of it because you’ll want to use this language in your messaging. Note any questions or objections that come up and refine your messaging accordingly. All of this can be used on a website or other marketing media.

After you’ve completed this basic market research you can move on to the next step.

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If you’d like help with your business or idea for one, please contact me here. I’d love to further help you in your life’s work because it’s my life’s work to do so.

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